The Revell/Italaerei C.R.D.A. Cant Z. 501 “Gabbiano”. This is an older kit; I couldn’t find a date on it. The Gabbiano was obsolete as a submarine patrol aircraft by 1941 and was replaced by the 506, but it served throughout the war in air-sea rescue. It was affectionately nicknamed “Mamma, aiuto!”, which means roughly “Momma, HELP!”.
Significantly smaller than a Catalina, it’s a little “pocket seaplane”. Photographed June 2009 .
Well done Cap’n Bill, certainly one of the more colorful Seaplanes I have seen. I bet that masking took a bit to get lined up, but you pulled it off nicely. [^]
Great job, Bill. Nice place to take the photos, too. I don’t think I’d like to be the gunner, a mouth full of oil and exhaust, an earfull of noise and a hurricane to stand in.
Intresting plane, very colorful to. Did you use the original decals of that old box? Where they still okay?
I did. They were yellow, but I put them up in a window for a month. Otherwise fine. I cut a mask for the fasces roundrels on the top of the wing so that the background of each was all silver, not partially red. I was working from old photos and the Cross of Lorraine on the tail didn’t bleed to the edges of the rudder like the box art shows, and the black areas were different, so I cropped the decal to be as per the photo.
The kit also had a clear “in-flight” stand. The instructions were really yellow and fell apart during construction. Thanks for looking.
Excellent build of a rarely seen Bird [tup]. Thanks for sharing.
Regards, Rick
The cross on the tail is not the " Cross Of Lorraine. " The Cross Of Lorraine has a shorter horizontal bar above the normal crossbar.
More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_of_Lorraine
Nice Build
You are correct. Cross of Savoy. Thanks, DB.
Oops! Sorry, I forgot to add that it is the Cross of Savoy.
Great job Bondo, You really did a fantastic job on this old beauty. Thankyou for being such a great member of the Reggieanne Aeronautica GB as well. Youve really turned out some great stuff.
…Guy
Bill you never cease to amaze!!! That looks great!!! Stunning colors and photography!!![tup]
Thanks, friends.